tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9206660347169327219.post2542702209191357121..comments2023-05-23T06:10:26.399-05:00Comments on Borderless Blogging: The Frontier of Mission Advance is ShiftingAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13991218555078662281noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9206660347169327219.post-21847659523199621182013-05-07T14:10:19.180-05:002013-05-07T14:10:19.180-05:00I, of course, agree with both of you. I would say ...I, of course, agree with both of you. I would say that among evangelical missions leaders and practioners, we have a basic consensus that the Great Commission is about "peoples" rather than about countries. Among pew-sitters we have nothing like that. Plenty of folks are still looking strangely at Carey and snarking, "If God wants to save the heathen, he will do it without your help or mine!" Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13991218555078662281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9206660347169327219.post-30180733942206168322013-05-06T20:06:50.222-05:002013-05-06T20:06:50.222-05:00Cody, thanks for the article - another good one. ...Cody, thanks for the article - another good one. About to work through the Long article next.<br /><br />Ian, you are right on brother! For the "average" Christian, missions is not front of mind, maybe not even in mind at all. Most of the time, when I talk to church-goers here in the South about the "unreached", they respond, "Well, we've got lots of unreached people right here in my town." Sometimes, with the mobility of diaspora peoples, they are more correct than they realize. But, that isn't what they are talking about.<br /><br />There is a lack of missions education, and I would add a thorough lack of willingness to learn.Nathan Harperhttp://www.theworldisourneighborhood.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9206660347169327219.post-28862010883122347052013-05-06T15:54:03.376-05:002013-05-06T15:54:03.376-05:00Cody, great article--one of the things I have been...Cody, great article--one of the things I have been wrestling with locally is the lack of education on mission within the local church. You say in this article that people have widely accepted the people group definitions of Winter, which is true in Evangelical academic circles--but for the most part, 99% of Christians in the pew are blissfully unaware of this concept--and for that matter lack a clear understanding of what mission is.<br /><br />I think the current 'missional' church trend is doing even more damage--we have a bunch of young start-up churches that are 'doing mission' that largely aren't doing mission the way that missionary academics are talking about (i.e. people groups, diaspora etc).<br /><br />Many new church plants that have gotten on the missional bandwagon have almost no understanding or place for international missions within their structures--I have yet to visit one 'missional' church that has a heart for the unreached--although they may be doing good work in their local communities reaching out to broken families and the unchurched.<br /><br />Something is broken, and I wonder whether mission academics need to descend from the ivory tower (or the front line trenches) and invest in the local church and mission education for the masses.Ian Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02840668701283536587noreply@blogger.com